Yoshiki Okamoto Explains What's Up With Game Republic

Game Republic founder says Folklore is dead, discusses being single, and hits on his PR manager.

Sometimes when we do an interview, for one reason or another we sit on them until we're ready to unveil them to the world. Take our last interview with Game Republic founder, Yoshiki Okamoto, the man better known as one of the co-creators of the Street Fighter franchise (and a slew of classic Capcom franchises, like 1942), but who in recent years has been responsible for fan favorites like Genji, Folklore, and the latest Dragon Ball game, Dragon Ball Origins. We tossed that interview around for almost a year before we finally put it online. This time around, however, we're a little more timely with our latest Okamoto interview, which we conducted less than a couple months ago at Tokyo Game Show. It's great catching up to this guy, though. He's an energetic, animated, hilarious person to talk to, and despite his refreshing honesty, he never comes off as cocky, but sincere in his passion for making games. We took some time out of our busy TGS schedule to shoot over to Game Republic's offices to settle in with Okamoto, to catch up with him, and to see how he and Game Republic have been doing. What follows includes some potentially controversial subject material (spoilers!), but bear in mind that it was all tongue-in-cheek and said in good spirits. That said, to keep things in context, understand that this interview was conducted before Brash Entertainment went belly up, and shortly before Dragon Ball Origins was released. Also, the chat veers from game-related stuff into some seriously off-topic tangents, like marital advice. Despite this, we've decided to keep the entire, delirious interview intact, so, consider yourself warned.

Note: Accompanying 1UP is translator, Hiroko Minamoto.

1UP: What have you been up to since we last spoke? That was at last year's Tokyo Game Show. [Editor's note: TGS '07] How have you been keeping busy with Game Republic?

Yoshiki Okamoto: For a while I've wanted to work on a game based on the Dragon Ball anime license. So I'm in the middle of talks right now with Bandai to put that game together.

Game Republic PR Representative: We are not able to talk about Dragon Ball at all at this time.

YO: Okay. Let's say I've been working on an "anime-based DS game," trying to get the ball rolling on that for the past year. As for Game Republic, we started out as just a development house, but we've wanted to try our hand at publishing for a while. We got the license for a board game which we're currently turning into a PSN title. The official announcement for that should be coming soon.

1UP: You love board games.

YO: Yeah.

1UP: In our last interview you said that Game Republic was working strictly with console providers, like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. But now it looks like you're branching out and developing games for third-party publishers, as well as publishing games yourself. How does that transform the company?

YO: It was actually a natural progression. Looking at the market, you see that at the beginning of a new hardware cycle the hardware providers need lots of good titles. But third-party developers want to wait. For them, the market just isn't there yet. For third-parties, the market is always in the previous generation, in the beginning anyway. Not as many people are buying games, but hardware makers still need launch titles. That's why I was concentrating on platform developers.

As the market expands and third-parties feel comfortable joining the market, that's when they're willing to spend money on making a project. And that's when we joined the third-party market. Also, if you're working with a platform maker, you can only make titles for that one platform. But if you're working with a third party, there's a greater chance they'll want to develop multi-platform titles. We've already gained experience working on multiple platforms working with several platform makers. We can use that experience in working with third parties on multiple platforms as well.

Beyond that, if you work exclusively with Japanese publishers, you get the reputation that you're only willing to work with Japanese publishers. But I didn't want that to be the case. I wanted to work globally. The European exchange rate has been especially favorable, so I tried working with different European companies. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a partner there. That resulted in me working with American publishers. But with the current economic situation, that hasn't been going well at all. We're getting through it, but it's a little hard.

1UP: [In Japanese] Yeah.

YO: Wow, you can speak Japanese as well?

Hiroko Minamoto: James has been studying Japanese. He's going to propose to his Japanese-American girlfriend next month. [Editor's note: She said yes.]

YO: [Applauds] I had a Japanese wife once, too, but we got divorced. [To Hiroko] Make sure to tell him that they're [Japanese women] scary. [Laughs] Korean women are even scarier. Really, really scary.

1UP: [In Japanese] They're a little scary.

YO: You see! He said it too! Everyone knows! After you get married, they change into another person entirely. Like if you were looking at them through a scouter in Dragon Ball, you would see their power level start to skyrocket, [Makes rapid beeping noises] then it breaks. That's what happened to my ex-wife. Like Frieza.

1UP: I think that usually applies to the mother-in-law.

YO: Where does your future mother-in-law live?

1UP: In Japan.

YO: That's good, you want her to be far away. Are you planning on living in Japan or America?

1UP: Japan, one day.

YO: That's not good. Right now, you're at the peak of your happiness, but it's all downhill from there. Relationships have good points where they go up a little, but in general, it's all downhill.

[Okamoto to Hiroko] You're not married yet, right?

HM: No, not yet.

YO: For women, there are always lots of men who want to be with them. Figuratively, they have a truck full of guys that they could choose from. For you, the truck's been in an accident, that's why no guys have arrived at the moment.

HM: Is that so?

Game Republic PR lady: My truck hasn't come in yet, either.

YO: Yours has been held up by the one in the accident.

Game Republic PR lady: That's what I'd thought.

YO: Anyway, I've never been very popular with the ladies. I'm single now, but that's normal for me. I just couldn't get dates growing up. I didn't have anything to offer, not even money. I just stayed at home playing videogames all day, every day. Now, I live in a company apartment where I live with a couple other Game Republic co-workers and we hang out on the weekends and just play videogames all day, or watch anime or DVDs while drinking sake.

1UP: [In Japanese]That sounds fun. I'd like to come and hang out with you guys.

YO: [Applauds] Bingo! I've been engaged before, but it was a long distance relationship, so it didn't work out. We didn't go on dates. We were only able to meet maybe once or twice a year. It was terrible. [Holds up a picture of himself] Instead of an interview, I think you should run this picture of me with the heading, "Why aren't I popular with the ladies?"

1UP: Following up on your comment from about twenty minutes ago, since the economy is bad everywhere, do you think that gaming will continue to thrive? Maybe because kids don't pay attention to the economy? They just figure out ways to get games. On that note, are you looking at the downloadable market a bit more? Downloadable games can't be returned, meaning you don't have to suffer from used game sales. You download the game. You own it. That's it, there's no returning it.

YO: Well, I don't think that the market will ever become exclusively download-centric. There will always be people that want the physical product, both collectors, and people who just like having the physical thing to look at. But we do have plan on expanding more into the downloadable space. Part of it deals with us getting into publishing. Through smaller avenues like that, I feel we have a real chance at being successful. As platforms and hardware like PSP and PS3 become more popular, so will DLC, and the days are coming soon where you'll be able to download full, big name titles.

About the economy going crazy, I do think that it's going to impact the gaming market. In Japan, we say that kids have seven pockets to pull money from, their parents and both sets of grandparents. But because of the economic troubles, those seven pockets aren't going to be as open as they used to be. Games are a luxury item. They're not something you absolutely need. Just like coffee, cigarettes, or cafe lattes. When you have extra money, you buy stuff like that, but when times are tight those are the types of things that get cut out first, the non-essentials.

In the future, game sales are going to be more compressed. People are going to be more choosey about what games they play, so they'll be looking for one game that they can play for a long time, instead of buying three games just to own the latest releases. Game sales will probably be even more concentrated in a few big titles. Of course games like Pokemon, million-plus sellers will be just fine. But maybe they'll only get to 800,000. Games that sold 400,000 will only sell 200,000. Games smaller than that might not sell enough to break even. There'll be an ever-widening gap between the successful and the unsuccessful companies. Or that's what I predict anyway.

1UP: Speaking about two games that you released a year ago, one of which you said you were the most proud of, Folklore, and also Brave Story, which I reviewed. I loved that game. How did Folklore do in the U.S.? I downloaded all the extra DLC, and I thought it was fun stuff, and it seems to have a very devoted following in the U.S., and Brave Story got very good reviews everywhere. Have you guys thought about making sequels to those games? I remember that you were thinking about making a Folklore for the the PSP. Is there any progress on that?

YO: Unfortunately, we're not making a sequel for either of those games. We had talked about a PSP version for Folklore, but we've since ceased those discussions. It makes me a little sad, but that's just the way it is.

1UP: You're working on a movie-based game for Brash Entertainment. Even if you can't say what license that is right now, how is the project coming? How hard is it to work on a movie license? You haven't done that kind of project before, have you?

YO: Actually, we're working on a Tom and Jerry movie/game tie-in [laughs]. Yeah, when Brash is ready, we'll both announce the game together. But technically, this isn't my first movie licensed project. Brave Story is based on an anime film. It's very difficult, turning a movie into a game, especially when the projects are being developed simultaneously. Trying to time things so they both get done at the same time is the biggest challenge. Like for a movie, if they have to film a rainy scene, but it's snowing out, they can just change it up and make it a snowy scene. Or if they wrote a scene with the ocean in the background, but they decide at the last second to film by a mountain, that can be decided on the spur of the moment. Obviously, you can't do that as easily in a game.

With a game, things have to be planned, prepared for, and executed on much more in advance. If this were a story that everyone was already familiar with, it would be easier to come up with an image, but with each step we're crafting an original work, and that vision can change at any moment. When the movie changes, it's difficult for the game to adapt as quickly. So, to be honest, it's very, very tough.

1UP: This may sound stupid, but Sam Kennedy wants me to ask, what cars do you drive? We heard you once had a Ferrari, but someone crashed it. Is that true?

YO: No, no, it was a Porsche. One of my employees crashed it. But other people have lots of accidents in my cars. My mom crashed a 2002 BMW GTR I used to drive. Now I'm riding a Joker scooter, a Monkey scooter from Monkey, a Rich mountain bike, an Esteema station wagon, and a BMW 750. I used to have a girlfriend that I was riding too. But I went out to the parking lot to get her the other day and she wasn't there anymore. [Laughs]

1UP: Have you stopped letting other people drive your cars?

YO: No, I haven't learned my lesson yet. In the past six months I've had five cars in accidents. But that happened to other people, not me, so I think of it as a good thing. Like they're taking the bad luck away from me. They're saving me from accidents so I don't get into any.

1UP: That's a lot of car crashes. Anyway, you seem to work very closely with Noritaka Funamizu, or have worked with him over the years on all sorts of projects from 1941 to Forgotten Worlds. But he recently followed your lead and left Capcom to start his own studio, Crafts & Meister. Do you still keep in touch with him?

YO: Wow, you've really researched the small details. We're still really good friends. I can never remember the name of his studio. What was it, Draft & Lager? I don't know what that is, but it sounds like a good tasting beer.

He really likes beer. Whenever we meet up, he's always there before me with a beer already in hand. He'll ask, "When will you be ready to head out?" And even if you said, "I'll be there at seven," he'd say, "That's too late, we have to start earlier." No matter what he starts drinking every evening from five. He always has a Belgian beer and french fries covered in mayonnaise while he waits for me. You know, that's probably not a healthy habit.

1UP: I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever do an interview with him.

YO: Perfect! [Laughs]

1UP: The president of Dimps [Takashi Nishiyama] lives in the same apartment complex as you. Do you guys ever talk? And who else from the industry do you hang out with?

YO: He actually lives in the same building, on the same floor, right next door to me. Mr. Nishiyama used to work at Capcom as well, so we bonded over the hard work we shared there, and we've been good friends ever since. Both of us had long stretches where we weren't in a relationship, but he would always be sharing a room with some guy. Not me, I mean we were friends. Just friends. I'm pretty sure Mr. Nishiyama is bisexual. But I'm straight. I only like girls, but he likes both. Mr. Nishiyama taught me how to turn my ideas into game design documents, but he didn't teach me about men.

1UP: That's interesting, because I don't know who said it, but a long time ago, at least six or seven years ago, and it might've been from either the editorial side or the development side, but someone told me that you were gay.

YO: [Speaking English] No way! I'm straight! [In Japanese] I think it's just a misunderstanding. I might've said I was working on the "GameBoy," and they heard "Gay Boy." [Laughs]

1UP: That's...interesting. I don't remember who told me that. I mean, it doesn't matter, but somebody mentioned it, and I was like, "Really?" Because every time I saw you at a Capcom Gamer's Day in Las Vegas, you were surrounded by hot Capcom girls.

YO: [Puts on deadpan face] I have to keep up the impression of being an unpopular guy in my office, so you can't talk about me surrounded by hot girls.

[Okamoto to the Game Republic PR lady] The other weekend, we had to go out and rate some videos for work. That was kind of like a date between us, right?

Game Republic PR lady: No. That was work.

YO: Anyway, the other weekend we had to go out and pick up around 200 videos. And it was kind of like a date for me. Cause when I go out on dates, I take girls out and since I never have any money, it's always something cheap. But for you, I know it's just work.

1UP: What kind of videos?

YO: We had a competition where we had people submit entries to create new, original character game designs, all amateur. And there are all types, from boring entries to incredibly boring entries. There are some that don't start up right away, or ones without sound or where the music's broken. But that's part of the job, so we had to rate all of them. That was pretty rough.

1UP: Since you are friends with Nishiyama, what do you think of the job that Capcom and Dimps are doing with Street Fighter 4? And what do you think of fighting games in general?

YO: You know, Nishiyama was the guy behind the first Street Fighter. I worked on two and three, and I didn't feel I had anything to add after that. But I think, when he looked at those others he thought to himself, "That's not the way I would've done it." That's probably what gave him the inspiration to start working on SF4 in the first place. I think he'll give it his all and it'll be a great title. After a while, that'll probably lead to SF4 Dash, then SF4 Dash Turbo Super, and more iterations like that. He'll work on it till he's also put as much into as he can, then maybe I'm sure someone else will pick up the ball and make a Street Fighter 5. Maybe even me. I think a series like that should have a lot of different hands working on its various iterations, and that's what we've done with SF. That's a good thing.

1UP: With Mr. Nishiyama and [former Capcom employee] Hiroshi Matsumoto, they left Capcom after Street Fighter and went to SNK where they worked on two of the biggest rivals to Street Fighter: Fatal Fury and King of Fighters. Was it weird suddenly having them as the competition?

YO: Well, during that time they were more my superiors than friends, especially Mr. Nishiyama. In Japanese, we say sempai; they had been at the company longer, and were just higher up on the company ladder than me. When you're in the same company, the same group, there are just people that you can't compete with. But I always sensed that those guys had a strong, strong competitive streak, a fighter's spirit. I always wanted to compete against them, but being part of the same company, I never had that opportunity.

I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, because I greatly enjoyed working with him, but I was also really happy when he left because I could finally get the chance to compete against him. Of course, if you think you're going to lose, then you're not even going to want to face off, but I was confident that I could win. I really wanted to have that match against him, so it was pretty exciting for me.

1UP: Back to a Game Republic-related question, will your PSN game Dark Mist ever come to the U.S.? It looks really cool.

YO: No, we probably won't be able to bring it to the West. That's not my decision, it's all in SCEA's hands, and it's up to them to decide. I'm pretty sure the game's already localized, but for some reason I'd heard that they decided not to release it. I don't want to say anything bad about SCEA, but I'd love for it to come out internationally.

1UP: That's really annoying. What's the problem with offering variety? It's not like anyone loses anything by releasing it in the U.S.

YO: It would be problematic for me to comment on something like that. So if I just shook my head in affirmation, would that be in the interview? [Laughs]

1UP: The last thing is, when are we going to hear some new announcements in North America from Game Republic?

YO: Well, I don't know if you'd call it big, but for us, for me in particular, taking this company from just me to a 300-person strong operation, then going from development into publishing, that's something. The company is growing, and after we transition over to publishing, I hope that we can bring out a bunch of great, reasonably priced titles. GR started out as a baby, and with everyone's support it's gotten really big. I hope that we continue to have everyone's support as we keep getting bigger and bigger.

Dark Mist!*

Darm Mist not coming to

U.S. playstation network and it is already localised????!!!! what the hell! someone at SCEA needs to be talked to if not fired for depriving U.S. gamers of such a fun title! same with all the great PS1 classics japanese playstation network has resident evil 1-3 on it and we get games like jet moto What the hell, hopefully we do see another folklore not enough games like that out these day

What? I can only give one thumbs up?

Refreshing Interview

Got to say I enjoyed this interview a lot. For once, it didn't feel like some PR person handed the subject a bunch of canned responses. It's rare to see candid interviews like that in any form and it's extremely rare to see them in the world of gaming. Good to see that the faces within and behind the gaming world are gaining a face and personality that the fans can relate to. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that Okamoto is a total goofball.

tired of this

Well, I guess that getting married doesn't necessarily means that the person is mature. I think everyone (including me) was giving Mielke the benefit of the doubt to say/think: "hey, I know where you coming from, but...". Does he reacts the same polite way? No, he keeps using sarcasm and curses.

I don't like this fanboy side of him, we were just pointing something out but never calling him out. Man, he even said "for you journalism wannabes". Really? Did he forgot that videogame reporters ARE journalism wannabes? Ups, was I being inmature right there? I think I did a Mielke.

Great Interview, no doubt about it. Douche editor?, maybe. Remainds me of Terrel Owens... I need another beer, xoxo!

Your Arguments Are Dead.

In every entry in the dictionary, there is a word, then a succeeding procession of words which define the key word. In this instance, Okamoto pretty much defined how dead the Folklore series is, WHICH BREAKS MY HEART because I really, really love Folklore. So if anyone in this world wishes there was a sequel in the works, or a portable version on PSP, it's me. However, I didn't bother to try and reinvent or reinterpret his answer into my own personal glimmer of hope that what he REALLY meant was that there were five more games in the works. Listen, just because the internet gives you an opinion, doesn't mean you're correct. A year ago, Okamoto told me he was only developing for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, and this year it's obviously different. So clearly he's able to change his mind whenever it makes business sense, and I can't believe I'm still explaining this to some of you people. But until he gets some bankrolling from Sony to conjure up a sequel to Folklore, who knows? For now, it's fucking dead. Also, for you journalism wannabes, newspaper/magazine/website headlines do not necessarily quote, verbatim, what a developer says. It's called paraphrasing.

@Milkman

Dude, the thing is that you are in a position that demands some kind of responsability. Normally, reporters don't write down their own conclussions and put them as facts. You wrote in the article's subtitle: "Game Republic founder says Folklore is dead". No he didn't. This is why game reporters/editors aren't consider to be "real" reporters/editors.

And one more thing. Wouldn't you say, 4 years ago, that the Fallout franchise was dead just because Interplay was on the verge of dying? Well guess what, we have Fallout 3, and Interplay got nothing to do with it.

Have you guys ever read the news?

Where they paraphrase things for people wanting the gist of what an article's about before they dive in? That's how it is on the web too, and if Game Republic isn't going to do a second Folklore, then no one else is either, because the likeliness is that they either own or co-own the IP by themselves or with Sony. SO, "Dead" is as an appropriate (and much more concise) description as "highly unlikely to be developed by us or anyone else in the near or far-off future." It will remain this way until someone decides to "resurrect" the series, if that's even an option, at which point it will be "undead." But for those of you holding out a very thin strand of hope that "someone" will take over development of the series, then feel free to debate the semantics, but as the person who was sitting in the room with Okamoto discussing this topic, I found his comments pretty definitive. Therefore, dead.

lol

i love that guy. i wish it was a video interview tho. would have loved to have been there. The guy seems to have a sense of humor like myself, which i never find in anyone but me lol, and he just seems like a fun guy. would kill to go out drinking with that guy some time lol.

"Dead"

I see validity in what both Jesse and OldSnake said, but this is a word that we'll likely have to get used to in the future... especially for JRPGs in America. Remember the days when games like FF7 and Chrono Cross would rape the charts? Well, nowadays it seems like Final Fantasy is about the only long-legged franchise left in the states, with DQ and Star Ocean trying to keep their grip. The late '90s was the time of JRPG mainstream popularity - it's fallen into "niche" territory since the release of Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fable 2 and the like. The RPG landscape has changed greatly on our soil. Folklore may not be officially "Dead" dead, but I'd probably let the hopes of a new one RIP... and if someone wants to resurrect it later, you can just have one big happy seance (or something).

Maybe "dead" just reflects my hopelessness.

"...to say the whole franchise is dead is basically saying the franchise is gone and will most likely never be worked on again."
Right, but I think that's exactly the case with the franchises. I really don't think there's any hope, and if anyone could pick that up, it would be Milky. He was the one doing the interview, after all.
I'm not trying to attack you or anything. I think we're just arguing semantics! And he was rather needlessly snarky with you, so I can understand.
I guess I don't care about all that so much as I care about the games, and the vibe I get from it all is that there is about a 1% chance of anything having to do with Brave Story or Folklore ever happening again. And that totally saddens me.
But I hope we can look forward to future endeavors from the devs that we'll enjoy just as much... Like I said elsewhere, I just would really like something more along the lines of Folklore and/or Brave Story (they were both so brilliant!) rather than Genji, which, given some more polish and taking some more risks could have been good too, but even then, it wouldn't have tickled me the way Folklore or Brave Story.
I just worry we'll never see games like that again out of Japan. We sure haven't gotten much lately.

@Jesse_Dylan

Yes, as I stated in my last post I saw where he was coming from as well, but as I also noted this is only only developer making a franchise that they don't even own. I'd not saying that we can expect a sequel soon, but to say the whole franchise is dead is basically saying the franchise is gone and will most likely never be worked on again.

Sorry, I just find it hard to decipher that from the very brief little statement that it's giving reference to.

Great interview!

You should get more assignments like this. It seemed to be more of a conversation than just a Q&A session, which was definitely refreshing.

It's sad that these games won't have sequels, but this does make me want to dust them off again. Folklore was my very first PS3 game and a one-of-a-kind gem. Brave Story is probably the best straight-up RPG available on a portable handheld, especially when you factor in the graphics and sound.

SCEA

has to be full of the most incompetent people in the business especially the division that greenlights PSN games. If the game isn't a complete disaster why wouldn't you allow it to come out here since its already translated? I guess my hopes of formerly Japanese exclusive ps1 games being released here is dead since it seems like the same people that didn't allow those games to come here in the first place still work at SCEA.

Excellent interview

That was the most entertaining 1UP interview I've ever read. If EGM had interviews like this, I would've kept my subscription. I mean, does the conversation always have to be strictly business? Let loose once in a while. Don't be afraid to ask personal questions. You want your readers to know game developers are humans with a life, after all.

I see where James is coming from, though.

Even Okamoto isn't just going to come out and say "We'll never be working on Brave Story or Folklore as IPs again," but that's basically the gist of it.
Maybe not dead, but at least in a deep, hopeless coma, plug likely pulled.
It makes me so sad that great games like that, these days, are not only not selling well in the States, but they're selling even worse at home in Japan! I just don't get it. Things have certainly become bizarre.

@Milkman

Im with Old_Snake38 on this one. To say " for the sake of people who don't pay attention enough" was uncool and unnecessary. He wasn't calling you out, he only gave his opinion. And you, being on a reporter/interviewer position, shouldn't be drawing conclusions such as a franchise being dead. At least not from that particular Okamoto's statment.

Good read

@Milkman

Yeah, obviously not working on a sequel at this point sucks but to say the franchise is dead from simply that statement? There have been weaker selling games that got a sequel in the past and since, if I'm not mistaken, the franchise is owned by Sony and they could get any other 2nd or 3rd party to develop on the franchise.

And to try to subdue your attempt at trying to punk me or whatever with your sarcasm, I wasn't calling you out or trying to contradict you or anything like that.

I understood where you were coming from in your article, but I don't think it's warranted to call the whole franchise dead just from that

Folklore

I'm not surprised that they aren't making a folklore sequel. It sold far more in the US than Japan, and didn't review well in Europe. It was a beautiful looking game though with an interesting premise. I hope they release some more PS3 games in the future.

Floklore: Dead.

It's fun posting stuff twice for the sake of people who don't pay attention enough the first time. But in response to my question where I ask if he's working on a sequel to Folklore or Brave Story, or if the PSP version of Folklore is still in the works, Okamoto says:

"Unfortunately, we're not making a sequel for either of those games. We
had talked about a PSP version for Folklore, but we've since ceased
those discussions. It makes me a little sad, but that's just the way it
is."

And not only that!

But apparently Dark Mist is translated but SCEA isn't going to release it! God, are we in the PSone era again? "Sorry, we won't release Arc the Lad 2 because it's in 2D, but here, have Beyond the Beyond."

WTF ':)

Folklore and Brave Story!

Dead? Damn it. Two of my favorite games, beacons of hope in a sea of games I really don't care that much about, two of the few Japanese games to make it over here lately and get good reviews.
And, of course, they didn't sell.
And Valkyria Chronicles isn't selling.
Where the hell are we going with all this? I don't like these turns the industry is making.
I guess I'll just get my Super Famicom out of my closet and hope the save batteries in the carts still work. :(
Hopefully I can look forward to Game Republic's future releases, but I bet they'll be more along the lines of Genji (which scored low and sold decently--I didn't like it) than Folklore or Brave Story.
Depressing as hell.